[JayG]

Are there any accurate frequency response graphs available for the W5000 with a proper fit? The charts at Headroom and headphoneinfo.com seem to portray exactly what you would expect from closed headphones with a bad fit. I just don't believe that either of them accurately reflects what you would hear from the W5000s if the pads sealed all the way around the ears.

I am considering them as my next purchase, but I would really love to see an accurate graph. (Yes I know graphs don't tell the whole story, but as someone who has owned quite a few phones, I know they can tell you quite a bit.) Also, those of you who own them, do your subjective impressions of the character of these phones match the graphs? If not, please feel free to explain how they differ.

 

[moonboy403]

The graph at headroom looks about right. Even though the W5000 is a closed can, it's just not bassy. The bass is extremely well defined and textured though. It made the K501's bass seemed flabby enough.

 

[jsaliga]

The only concern I have with those graphs is that they seem to suggest that the AKG K701 has superior bass response to the ATH-W5000. My ears tell me something different.

--Jerome

 

[JayG]

Yeah, I mean the thing is that if those graphs are right, I feel like they would sound extraordinarily, freakishly different from every other well-knows pair of cans around here. Most phones have a dip approaching, including, and proceeding from 1k hz (where the ear is most sensitive), a slight-to-large hump in the bass to make up for the lack of visceral speaker-bass impact, and slightly recessed to slightly emphasized highs. If that graph is accurate, because of the way the ear works, it seems like the W5000s would have massively emphasized mids, almost imperceptible bass, and very very recessed upper treble (above the fundamental of the common istruments), which would rob acoustic music of most of the critical overtones that determine instrumental timbre. It makes me think of what the response of a telephone receiver might look like.

Now, I know these cans have an interesting signature and that they aren't the bassiest out there, but I haven't heard anyone describe them as so incredibly outside the norm of the other popular phones around here. This makes me question how accurate that graph is. I have to say that for pretty much all of the phones I've heard, the Headroom graphs have more or less accurately represented the subjective impression of frequency response. This one is just tough to swallow.

 

[jsaliga]

Jay, I just took delivery of a pair of Grado GS1000s today and have been comparing them to the ATH-W5000s that I own. You might find this thread interesting.

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f4/sti...06/index3.html

--Jerome

 

[Andrew_WOT]

Here's another one
audio-technica ATH-W5000

 

[Zuglufttier]

I've never heard a headphone that has more colored mids than the W5000 but I still love it

I think the graph at headroom is quite ok. Bass quality is really great but in comparison to a lot of other headphones it's just not enough in terms of quantity. But that's what you should get if you seek neutral sound.
But hey, this is not about getting neutral sound but about getting your music to sound even better

It always take a few minutes for me to adjust to its sound but then I really enjoy them very much. But I prefer electronic music with this one...

 

[b0dhi]

I couldnt get them to seal around my ears at all - isn't HR's graph accurate for the many of us that have the same issue, then?

 

[Zuglufttier]

Quote:

Originally Posted by b0dhi /img/forum/go_quote.gif I couldnt get them to seal around my ears at all - isn't HR's graph accurate for the many of us that have the same issue, then?

Not really, I guess. I don't have problems with the sealing because my headband is bent. I still think those headphones sound strange at times. But that's ok for me

 

[some1x]

I didn't keep the W5000 for very long, for the same reasons as why I didn't like the SA5000 and K701.